Dark matters...

[greenpassion]

Thank you Leafmite. Me too...

[No-Pro-mwa]

I'm so sorry to hear that. I guess it is war now.

[greenpassion]

Originally Posted by No-Pro-mwa

I'm so sorry to hear that. I guess it is war now.

It is. And I think I have bigger problems as well. Something is dragging entire traps off, and I had one small little zapper type trap for the mouse has to go in and cross a pad and it gets shocked. I opened it up this morning and I Mouse did exactly that but something else came in through the tunnel and ate half of it. This trap itself across the room in the garage. That's not a mouse that's something else...

[No-Pro-mwa]

Could it be a pack rat? I have had one get into the house once. There really cute but also a mess. Very, very smart. It started eating on my orchids.

[Leafmite]

All of this is why, at the end of every September, we bait up the traps and set them and poison around the perimeter of the garage. We have not had a problem with mice in our home since.

The year we got mice in our home, we battled fleas on our dogs, we had fleas on our bunny and gerbil, we pulled a tick off of a zebra finch, two of our young finches died very suddenly, and the mice chewed up some of the drywall and insulation. For us, it was a nightmare. While I really love animals, this experience taught me that, sometimes, I had to be practical about co-existing with them.

My daughter goes to a university in Pennsylvania and two of her friends have lost dogs to Lyme disease. Without healthy populations of snakes, foxes, and other predators, mice really flourish. When you look at how quickly they can reproduce, it is quite stunning.

[Dollythehun]

Preach it, Leafmite!!!!!

[No-Pro-mwa]

Arn't they all cute or beautiful when there in some one else's back yard.

[Leafmite]

It is difficult, Dollythehun, for me to harm animals. I gently capture and put out the spiders, stink bugs and even the emerald ash borer. This mice issue is a very frustrating quandary for an animal-lover who eats a mostly vegetarian diet and has written letters against using animals in labs and when I am putting out the poison, I always hope that the mice will just stay out of the garage and not need to die such a death. When the neighbors got cats, I was hopeful that the cats would take care of the mouse issue but they do not hunt mice, preferring birds and baby bunnies. In my opinion, this poison is a terrible thing to do to a creature but I have little choice but to use it to protect my pets, myself, my home and keep everything sanitary. Sigh.

Just after we signed all the papers to buy our house, the people who sold it to us told us that they had battled mice. Our West Highland terrier quickly killed and lined up all the mice for us then kept them at bay. Unfortunately, dogs do not live forever. We bought our daughter a Westie some years later as she wanted one and it is just not a hunter. The American Eskimo loves everything, including mice and the Malti-poo gets a few mice in the yard but does not have the endless patience of the first Westie. Being allergic to cats, getting a kitty is not a good option for me. Again, I hate using poison but I have not found a better way. And, unfortunately, the poison pellets in our garage are always eaten and need replaced a few times during the winter.

---------- Post added at 01:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:00 PM ----------

Originally Posted by No-Pro-mwa

Arn't they all cute or beautiful when there in some one else's back yard.

Or in the pet shop. Mice look so much like gerbils, just smaller and cuter.

[No-Pro-mwa]

It is hard but one has to do what one has to do. I stopped with the poison but if I have to I guess I will use it again. I stopped for the reasons you mentioned. I prefer if they get in the house to hope they get there head in the trap as it is a quick death. If they get there bottom end in then not so good.

I too am allergic to cats and they will get my birds and bunnies so I don't want to get one. When I was in high school I found a baby mouse in the middle of the sheep shed and I was standing right over it. It did have hair on it but it's eye's were not even open. Well there was no way I could find where it's nest was so I raised it. I named him or her Speedy Gunzalis (sp). Any one that's a bit older will know where that name came from. So Speeder Eader, nick name, grew to a full sized mouse and would run around inside my and my sisters shirt. He would come up out of the neck and we would feed him cheese or what ever and he would zip back down and eat it. Of course your shirt had to be tucked in and he would run around and around and sometimes bit as he rounded your side. He got a spanking for that one.

So it's not always so easy to kill them as they look like him. He started getting out of his 5 gallon bucket and my mom was about to kill me so I took him where he could be a mouse and not be trapped.

[Dollythehun]

Ladies. I agree. I was raised on a farm. But going back to the original post: we all agree it pains us to take a life of any kind. But, now GP's situation is eaten wiring, moved traps with half eaten mice, and a beloved pet with Lyme disease. Plus, and I'm speaking from experience, she is single. We sometimes have our husbands to do the unsettling tasks (at least I do). Her problem is no longer just a nusense(sp).